(This article appeared in the November/December 2025 issue of The American Postal Worker magazine)
The Support Services Division 2025 All-Craft training consisted of information on building the labor movement, grievance writing, a solidarity action with Amazon worker Lauri Masterson, who is organizing a union in her workplace, and craft breakout sessions over three days.
Support Services Director Arrion Brown greeted attendees and read the agenda for the morning session, titled “Organizing for Support Services, the APWU, and the Labor Movement.” Director Brown spoke about the importance of organizing and moved into the first item of the agenda, which covered relevant sections of the APWU Constitution and Bylaws that support the Division’s organizing goals.
The next topic on the agenda covered how organizing protects our membership, and the dangers postal workers face if we do not organize the private sector. To that end, Director Brown spoke about the legal requirement for wage comparability, a part of the Postal Reform Act of 1970 that mandates that USPS compensation must be comparable to the private sector.
This led Director Brown into the next topic on the agenda, which was the basics of organizing, including tips on how to have an organizing conversation, how to be a good listener, and “aiming for the bullseye,” which is an organizers goal of changing the attitudes of those on the outside who may initially be hostile or disengaged from unionizing closer to the center of being a core activist. An interactive class activity allowing attendees to write their own organizing conversation using what they had learned from the organizing conversation discussion followed this agenda point.
The morning session concluded with a discussion about the benefits of a strong, organized labor movement, what workers have accomplished in the past, and where we go from here.
“The potential in organizing the private sector and how to organize ourselves all gets us to a broader definition of what we can do for the labor movement – we want a strong, organized labor movement,” exclaimed Director Brown. “So, what has a strong, organized labor movement accomplished over the years?”
Director Brown then provided examples of labor organizing wins of the past, including the San Francisco General Strike in 1934 and more currently, how tens of thousands of labor activists from the Korean Metal Workers Union and the Teachers Union in South Korea in 2024 halted a martial law declaration within six hours made by then- President Yoon Suk Yeol, who attempted to suppress what he called “anti-state forces.”
The afternoon session consisted of an in-depth presentation by Support Services National Business Agent Orlando Anderson on the importance of effective grievance writing. He went over the details of the grievance procedure, fighting against discipline, and taught tips and best practices of filing grievances.
Support Services Division members also attended the private sector organizing discussion with Lauri Masterson. There was a breakout session for Information Technology/Accounting Services (IT/AS) on stalled contract negotiations, which have stalled due to management not wanting to agree to any of the improvements the union has proposed, and a breakout for Operating Services, where attendees discussed the problematic history of contract negotiations, including the very limited accomplishments gained for the craft since it was added to the 2010 APWU-USPS main agreement.
The Support Services Conference was very exciting. We are looking forward to the attendees applying the knowledge that was obtained in organizing and grievance writing in their actions in the future. ■
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